


You Could Be My Muses

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Love Confessions, M/M, Multi, Muses, Neal Caffrey wants to make original art, Post-Season/Series 02 Fix-It, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28097184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Neal makes a proposal to Peter that's pure insanity... but very seductive insanity.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	You Could Be My Muses

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was "White Collar AU," which was very open-ended. I've been mulling something like this over for a while. I hope it's entertaining. It's definitely sappy.

"I have it," Neal said as soon as Peter opened the door. Peter gave him a puzzled look, and Neal clarified, "The Nazi treasure. I have it. Well, Mozzie has it. But it's ours."

"I _knew_ you took it," Peter said.

"I didn't take it. Mozzie took it. I didn't lie to you, Peter. I wouldn't."

"Wouldn't you?"

"Of course not."

"You know you can't keep it," Peter said. 

Neal looked past him, and then back at him. "Can I please come in?" Peter stood aside and waved Neal into the house. Satchmo trotted right up to Neal to beg for petting, and Neal stooped to give him a good scratching behind the ears before he sat down on the couch and sighed heavily. "I'm going to say something to you, and you're not going to like it, but I'm going to ask you not to knee-jerk react, please."

"I don't like the sound of that," Peter muttered. 

"I said you wouldn't. Please, Peter, just hear me out."

"Fine," Peter said. "Say it."

"...quit the FBI and come with us. We want you and Elizabeth in our lives, but we can't stay here and live the way we want to. You'll never want for anything again, you can have whatever you want. But you can't have it in New York."

"You're insane," Peter said, shaking his head. "Quit the FBI and go on the lam with you?"

"You're the only person who's ever caught me," Neal said. "If you come with me... no one will be able to find us. Not with the things we both know."

"And where are we going to go, that the FBI won't follow us?"

"Cape Verde," Neal said. "It's beautiful there. We'll have an amazing life. Think about it. All the things we could do, the things we could be..." He fixed Peter with a pleading look, and repeated himself, "the things _we_ could be..."

"I can't," Peter said. "I can't even think about it, you know I can't, you _know_ why I can't..."

"You could," Neal said softly. "We all could. We could start over in a place where nobody knows us or who we used to be, so we could be anything we wanted to be, anything at all."

"It's a fantasy, Neal. We can't live like that. Not forever. Sooner or later, it'll all come crashing down around us."

"You're the one who crashed it last time I had it," Neal pointed out. "If we're together, who could stop us? Seriously, Peter, tell me who you think could stop us. Because I don't think anyone could."

"...I don't know," Peter said helplessly. "Someone would. Eventually."

"You should ask El what she thinks."

"She won't change my mind, either. I don't want you talking to her about this."

"I won't. But Mozzie is, right now. So it's way too late for you to keep her from knowing."

"Goddammit, Neal..." Peter sighed and sat heavily on the couch next to Neal, dropping his head into his hands. "It's... such a seductive thought."

"Is it really?" Neal couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Getting to be something different to each other than what we are now? Yeah. Running away to a tropical paradise to live in luxury with my beautiful wife, a well-meaning conspiracy nut, and..." Peter paused, and didn't continue.

"What do you want me to be to you, Peter?" Neal settled his hand on Peter's knee. "Because there are so many things I want to be to you that I can't be as your CI. But if we leave... I can be anything you want me to be. Anything you'll let me be. Your best friend, or your partner, or your lover, or—"

Peter gasped and covered Neal's hand with his own. "Stop," he said, voice rough. "Stop talking, Neal. We can't. It doesn't matter if I want it. It doesn't matter if we _all_ want it. We can't do it."

"We can," Neal said. "We can, if we want to. If you want to. It hinges on you. If you want to take this dream and crush it, you can. I knew that was a possibility when I asked you. That you'd shut it all down, tighten my leash, maybe send me back to prison. But is that really what you want to do?" Neal turned his hand over and caught Peter's. "Can't we both be free, Peter? Can't we all be happy? Can't you... give me something better to do with my talents than making forgeries, or identifying other people's?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I want to make art of you. You and El. You're... you could be my muses. I haven't really let myself do any of the things I've thought about, but god, I could commit the two of you to every medium I've mastered. Let me do it. Give me the time I need to immortalize you."

Peter just stared at Neal, mouth half open, for a moment that stretched out like taffy. "You... what?"

"I want to sell the art to get the materials to make art of my own," Neal said. "I want to show everyone what I see when I look at the best man I've ever known. Come with me, Peter. Please. Let me take your righteousness and El's perfection out of New York so I can share you both with the rest of the world."

"You're conning me," Peter said, in a voice that trembled. "You don't mean this."

Neal slid off the couch and went to his knees, taking both Peter's hands in his own and looking up at him intently. "I've been conning you," he said quietly. "I've been conning you into thinking that you're my handler, when what you are to me is... the steady, fixed point that my whole existence orbits around. I _love_ you, Peter. I put my future into your hands already. I'm asking you to trust me to guide _our_ future for a while."

" _Neal_ ," Peter said, voice as broken as his resolve to stand firm against Neal's beautiful fantasy. He pulled his hands from Neal's only to catch Neal's face between his hands and kiss him with rough desperation. "Damn it, Neal," he whispered straight into Neal's lips, and kissed him again, and again, gentling with each kiss until the buzz of his cell phone in his pocket startled him into pulling back. Neal sucked on his lower lip as he watched Peter check his phone, close his eyes, and flip it open. "Hi, hon... are you on your way home? ...yeah, I know we need to talk. Yes, I... yeah. Okay. See you soon."

"Do I get to stay for this conversation?" Neal asked.

"I think you have a vital role to play in it," Peter said, and tugged Neal back up to the couch. "You know me too well," he added, quiet and rueful, as he laced their fingers together.

"I promise not to use it against you," Neal said, pulling their hands up so he could kiss the back of Peter's. "But you have to trust me to use it for you."

"I do," Peter sighed, and felt the foundations of everything he thought was true shift while they waited for El to get home.


End file.
